I supposed I should have expected this. My bringing in a huge client threatened all of Carson’s plans to oust me. He was going to do anything he could to undermine me, including questioning the Golden Goose I’d brought to the table.

I had a moment of uneasiness. Did he know? Did he know about Nick and Lexi? About me and Nick? I could feel my face get warm and my heart was racing. This was crazy. I hadn’t done anything wrong. There was absolutely nothing suspect about my landlord introducing me to his sister and her hiring me to do design work for her.

Except Nick didn’t want anyone to know that Lexi was his sister or that he was paying for the work, and I definitely didn’t want anyone to know that I was sleeping with Nick. Fair or not, I knew it would damage my credibility in bringing in this client. I knew that I’d have gotten the job whether Nick and I had hooked up or not, but it wouldn’t appear that way from the outside looking in and there was nothing I could do to curb the speculation.

I glanced around the room. Everyone was watching me, some wanting to see how I handled Carson and others looking for an explanation.

Miguel glanced at Carson, looking irritated. He was about to say something but I jumped in, knowing that if I didn’t answer Carson, his question would linger in people’s minds. I was not about to let him sow seeds of doubt about me.

“I know, it’s crazy, right?” I asked. I decided to brazen it out. As has been noted before, I am a terrible liar so I stuck as close to the truth as possible. I forced a laugh and hoped it didn’t sound like I was choking on it. “Lexi and I have a friend in common who introduced us and we clicked. I guess it was sheer luck, being in the right place at the right time.”

Carson stared at me. He looked like he wanted to push for more details, but Sophie interrupted him.

“It was lucky for Vasquez Squared, that’s for sure,” Soph said. “But then Annabelle has always made connections so easily. I’m not surprised at all.”

She brushed a speck of lint off of her suit coat. Everyone was watching her, but I was looking at Carson, and I saw his eyes narrow with a blast of hatred that made me catch my breath. For the first time, I wondered if Carson’s problem wasn’t with me so much as it was with Soph.